#living out their lives in a beautiful modern house in the desert
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Horror About the American West
(definitions of all nouns in that description are flexible)
Angela Carter, American Ghosts and Old World Wonders. This is a UK only release, but in the 21st century, anyone can get ahold of it. Every story is great, but John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore was life-changing.
Victor LaVelle, Lone Women. Beautiful, hautning imagery of the vast Montanta wildnerness but alos just the perfect scary story set-up: A woman shows up with a trunk that's securely locked and that she won't allow anyone to open....
Alma Katsu, The Hunger. A mildy trashy fictionalization of the Donner Party but has some great creepy scenes.
Claire Vaye Watkins, Battleborn. Is this collection of literary short stories technically horror? Probably not, but Claire Vay Watkisn herself is an icornic horror archetype that shows up in Scream V, Nightmare on Elm Street VI and specifically the semi-obscure Harlan Ellison novella, The Resurgance of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedge, so everything she does counts as horror. But most importantly, the cosmic horror of all these stories is the Nevada desert, which will kill you impersonally.
V. Castro, Queen of the Cicadas/La Reina de Las Chicharras: What if a novel had the balls-to-the-wall gruesome energy of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Wouldn't that aboslutely rule?
Tananarive Due, The Good House. This book takes place in the far west coast of Washington State, which is a different, wetter kind of "west" than everything else on this list, but I just adore this book. Due is the closet thing we have to a new Stephen King or Stephen Spielberg in terms of her ability to create these richly realized characters who feel like they have full lives off the page. This books gave me the same feelings of love and catharthis that I felt reading The Shining for the very first time.
Stephen Graham Jones, Growing Up Dead in Texas: This is one of Jones' experimental books that are less fun and accessible than his big hits, but it's one that I think of often. It's a critique of a particular kind of true cime memoir, a refusal to turn one's marginalized childhood into a digestible story for the This American Life crowd. It's an ambitious, post-modern work.
Stephen King, 1922: An underrated King novella that hit all his best notes of grim misogyny, rural isolation and Tales From the Crypt gross-outs.
Gillian Flynn, Dark Places. Not as literary as Sharp Objects, not as tight as Gone Girl, but special and beloved to me. This is a tale of the Farm Aid/ Satanic Panic 1980s and really wallows in the isolation and misery of the great plains, .
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Midnight | Chapter 19 | SR
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
A/N - a slight jump forward in time here. For the sake of this, Spencer’s mom lives back in Vegas.
Chapter Summary - after finding a new place to settle down, things finally seem like they might be looking up for you and Spencer. Meanwhile Luke refuses to rest while he continues searching for you.
Pairing - unsub! Spencer Reid / Fem! Reader
Category - dark angst | smut | very eventual happy ending
Warnings - cleaning up a crime scene, burying bodies, fingering, handjob, swearing, vomit, brief mention of depression, penetrative, unprotected sex, lying.
WC - 5.7k
Chapter 19 - Stitch Me Up
Two Months Later
The desert city of Twentynine Palms, California was located in the Mojave Desert and sat on the northern side of the Joshua Tree National Park and promoted the motto “a beautiful desert oasis”.
It wasn’t small but it was huge either, with a population of around twenty five thousand, making it a great place for two people to hide in plain sight. And given its desert location, the temperature this time of year was over one hundred and five, a stark contrast from tiny little Colorado mountain towns.
Samuel and Violet Truman of Arizona had moved out west and rented themselves a little fully furnished three bed, single storey home on Chia Avenue in a quiet suburb of Twentynine Palms. They arrived two weeks ago after spending some six weeks travelling the states with their travel companions Jack and Lily Waters.
From the outside their home left a lot to be desired, with its rickety metal fence and lone palm tree in the sandy front yard. But the inside was so modern and sheek that the couple had signed a lease on the spot.
From the outside looking in, you and Spencer were the idyllic all American couple. And admittedly, from the inside you were also pretty damn happy.
Since fleeing Crested Butte in the middle of the night two months ago, things had changed dramatically. That night you’d waited until Luke had stopped patrolling your cabin before getting Mary’s body into the trunk of the Nissan. You’d scrubbed every single inch of the house until it was cleaner than when you’d arrived, tweezed the bullet out of the wall and filled in the hole left behind, before gathering all of your belongings and getting the hell out of dodge.
On the way out of town you had begged Spencer to make one last stop. He wanted to refuse, you could tell, but he was trying so hard to make you happy, to make up for the way he’d been treating you that he agreed and pulled the Nissan to a stop on the street outside of McGills.
It had been late and all the lights were off so you’d ducked down the side alley towards the door that led up to his apartment. You’d had no idea if he’d be there but you’d prayed with every fibre of your being that he would. And by some stroke of luck, he answered the door after you’d knocked twice.
“Rose,” he folded his arms across his chest and leant against the door jamb. “Or should I say, Y/N.”
“I heard Luke spoke to you.” You gnawed on your lip as Jesse regarded you like the stranger you were.
“He did. I have to say, I did not expect you to be FBI.”
“Yeah.” You nodded. “It’s a long story. I just wanted to come by and apologise for everything. I probably really shouldn’t have let myself follow you out of the Nickel that night.”
“I’m glad you did.” He nodded, dropping his arms to his sides. “Even though it didn’t work out between us, it at the very least got me out of my slump. Maybe now I can actually put myself out there again, you know? Now I’ve gotten over that first hurdle.”
“You’re going to make some woman very happy someday.” You smiled, subconsciously taking a step closer.
“It’s a shame it couldn’t have been you.” He shrugged wistfully.
You swallowed thickly, glancing down the alley and noting that you couldn’t see the Nissan from this position, or more importantly, its occupant couldn’t see you. You stepped even closer to Jesse and cupped his cheek.
“In another life maybe.” You whispered. “I’m leaving town.”
“I figured as much.” He nodded as your hand wandered down from his face to bicep. “You could stay, you know? With me. You don’t have to go just because he wants you to.”
“You have no idea how tempting that is. But I can’t.”
“I know.” He sighed, suddenly gripping the back of your neck. “I’m going to miss you.”
Suddenly he’d slammed his lips against yours in a kiss so passionate your legs had buckled. If Spencer knew how you’d said goodbye to Jesse, he most likely would have gone back and killed him. If he’d known you’d let Jesse finger you in his doorway while you jerked him off in return, Spencer would have certainly murdered him and probably enjoyed it.
But clearly you had a better poker face than you realised as Spencer simply drove off as soon as you were back in the car. And on the drive the only thing you’d thought of were Jess’s last words to you.
“I wish I’d gotten a chance to love you, Y/N.”
But at some point you had to let that go.
Mary’s final resting place had been a hole in the ground in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in Montana, almost eight hundred miles north of her hometown of Crested Butte. The Nissan met the same fate as Spencer’s Volvo a further five hundred and fifty miles east just outside of Medora, North Dakota.
Spencer purchased three pairs of bus tickets: one down to Texas, one out to Minnesota and one to Iowa, the latter being the ones you actually used. It took the better part of an entire day on a sweaty, smelly bus before you arrived in Cedar Rapids.
You checked into a cheap and dirty motel under the names of Jack and Lily Waters and spent almost the entire night having sex. Thoroughly exhausted in the morning, Spencer found a used car lot and using his Arizona licence in the name Samuel Truman, paid cash for a black Chevy Impala.
For the six weeks that followed you travelled up and down the country in much of a zigzag, alternating between your two pseudonyms, back and forth so the BAU would never find you. You spent six weeks in multiple different cheap motels, fucking like rabbits every step of the way.
You’d never felt so intrinsically linked to someone the way you did to Spencer in those six weeks. And it seemed he’d finally found his bliss as he didn’t kill once.
Eventually when enough time passed you’d choose to settle down in California. But unfortunately the mundane realities of life would ultimately be your downfall.
You stood up from the bathroom floor with a groan, wiping the back of your hand over your mouth and padding over to the sink. You stuck your mouth directly under the faucet and drank from it to wash away the taste of bile on your tongue.
You’d been throwing up on and off for some weeks now but you simply put it down to the residual stress of being on the run. You exhaled heavily before shuffling back out into the bedroom where Spencer still lay naked on top of the sheets.
“I’m mildly offended.” He offered you a wistful smile.
“I’m sorry.” You grumbled, flopping back to the bed next to him.
“It’s ok. Just never had anyone need to throw up whilst sucking my dick before.” He chuckled, wrapping his arm around your shoulders.
“It’ll teach me not to eat hotdogs from a gas-and-go.” You sighed. “I can try again if you’re still in the mood?”
“After I just listened to you puke your guts up? I’m suddenly not very horny.” He pulled you closer so your head was resting on his chest. “But seriously, are you ok? You’ve been getting sick a lot lately.”
“Yeah I guess it’s stress or something. I’ll be fine.” You nuzzled against him, placing your hand flush against his chest over his heart.
You smiled as the ring caught the light and found yourself moving impossibly closer to Spencer. His grandmother's old ring had been upgraded, as had the one he wore, for newer silver matching bands inscribed on the inside with partners in crime.
One of your stops on your travels before you’d made your way to Twentynine Palms had been in Atlantic City at a seedy motel just off the main strip. After a few drinks one night as you walked by a little drive-in chapel, Spencer had a proposition for.
“What would you say I said we should get married?” He pulled you to a stop on the sidewalk.
“Married?” You glared at him.
“Right now. Partners in crime forever.” He grinned at you.
“You’re joking, right?” Your brows furrowed.
“I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life. Before we get swallowed up entirely in the lives of Samuel and Violet, I think Spencer and Y/N need to do this one last thing.”
And really there had only been one answer to that. You and Spencer had been bound for life the moment you’d left DC with him, you were as good as married, so why not make it official?
If your old team were to ever find one last trace of Spencer Reid and Y/N Y/L/N it would be the signing of marriage licences in a little Atlantic City chapel.
Spencer purchased you the new rings as a surprise and that along with your rose gold heart necklace, were your most treasured possessions.
“You don’t need to be stressed, sweetheart. It’s over, we’re safe now. I’ll never let anything bad happen to you.” He cooed, kissing your head.
It really was amazing the difference a few months could make. Of course things weren’t ideal, you’d always be on the run, never able to return home but things with Spencer were as close to perfect as they could possibly be.
Since fleeing Butte he’d been wonderful, the Spencer you’d known was still in there somewhere. You may be on the run but as long as this was the Spencer you woke up to every morning, you didn’t mind at all.
But Spencer was wrong, things were far from over. At least you’d always have these moments to look back when everything came crumbling down. But for now, despite the stress within you, you knew Spencer was all you needed to feel whole. You and Spencer were two broken halves but maybe together you could patch each other up and finally feel complete.
***
Two days after Luke Alvez arrived back from Crested Butte he received a phone call from the diner owner's son.
Jesse McGill had informed him of the mysterious disappearance of the girl Mary, whom Luke had met at the diner, which was followed in quick succession by you and Spencer’s sudden departure from the town.
It really didn’t take a genius to put two and two together. But unfortunately for Luke it did take a genius to pull it off and Spencer was sure to leave behind no trail, no scrap of evidence. And two months later and Mary still hadn’t been found and the BAU had no leads on you and Spencer’s whereabouts. You’d well and truly outsmarted them.
In his spare time, which was very few and far between these days, he poured over the Duncan Green case file as well as images of the sparkling clean cabin you’d left behind in Butte in the hopes that maybe he’d missed something. He stayed late in the office every single night and looked for any reports of sightings of you and Spencer as Emily had officially registered you as missing persons. He scrolled through police databases for any other occurrences that might point to where the hell you were.
He’d discovered two bodies buried in woodlands across the country which were similar in MO to Green but with no pertinent links between them, the BAU couldn’t investigate.
Lyle Smith was found in a shallow grave with his throat cut in the Hoosier National Forest just north of Jasper, Indiana. The body of Brett Carlisle from Wichita, Kansas was found in the Rita Blanca National Grasslands in Texas. Both bodies had been subject to the elements but deemed to have been dead since before that little Nissan was picked up on Elk Avenue for the first time. So maybe Spencer had been on some kind spree since he’d left DC.
And that brought him onto the discovery of the burnt out Nissan, near identical to how they’d found Spencer’s Volvo. They’d spent three days searching the area surrounding where the vehicle was found for Mary’s body only to come up short. Of course, Spencer wasn’t stupid, he wouldn’t dispose of a body anywhere near the car.
The only lead Luke had really had in the last two months was the filing of a marriage licence in the state of New Jersey. It was like a big middle finger in his face, clearly you’d both wanted him to find it. He’d driven to Atlantic City on one of his rare days off and canvassed the area near the wedding chapels, showing your photographs to anyone who would look. But he knew you’d be long gone.
If he could just find a way to connect any of these crimes to Spencer, or to find Mary’s body then maybe he could convince you to come home. He was sure you had nothing to do with any of this and if had solid proof that Spencer had murdered one of these people maybe it could be his way to form a wedge between the two of you. No matter what happened, Luke would never stop trying to protect you.
But god if it wasn’t taking its toll on him.
Luke Alvez was, in no uncertain terms, coming apart at the seams. The stitching holding him together had been removed thread by thread and at this point there was barely anything holding him together. Emily had expressed her concerns for his mental health, suggesting he seek medical help for what she had dubbed a depressive spiral.
His response had been simply, “you’d be depressed too if your best friend had married a murderer” which had pretty much shut down the conversation.
He knew he was devolving, he’d seen it hundred of times before. His apartment was a mess of case files, innocuous accounts of possible sightings and potential victims of Spencer. He barely slept, running mostly on coffee and energy bars. He was almost certain he was getting an ulcer.
But he wouldn’t let this go. He couldn’t shake the feeling that you weren’t safe and he couldn’t rest until he knew you were. Maybe this obsession would eventually kill him, but it would be worth it to be able to free you from the clutches of Spencer Reid.
***
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” You scurried back to the car with your best apologetic smile as you slid into the passenger’s seat and Spencer pulled a face.
“Did you puke again?” He frowned at you.
“No.” You shook your head.
“You were peeing again? You went when we got here.” He started the engine.
You weren’t exactly sure where you were headed, Spencer had simply told you that you were going out for the day and with nothing better to do you’d followed along. You were somewhere along the I-15 heading north about two hours away from Twentynine Palms, at a gas station. You’d only stopped long enough for Spencer to fill up the Chevy and have a coffee and you’d used the bathroom twice, which was very unlike you.
“I know, I think I drank too much coffee this morning.” You mused, putting on your seatbelt.
“You always drink too much coffee, but that’s an entirely different conversation.” He chuckled, putting the car in reverse and pulling out of the space.
As he merged back onto the interstate you twirled your wedding band around your finger, watching the way his caught the sunlight through the windscreen and you smiled to yourself.
“Where are we going, Spence? Not that I don’t like a spontaneous road trip but I thought we’d settled now? Driving long distances usually only equals bad things where we’re concerned.” You rolled your bottom lip between your teeth.
Spencer removed one hand from the wheel and brought it to rest on your knee while he smiled at you softly.
“We’re going to see my mom.” He spoke happily.
“Oh.” You nodded with a soft laugh. “Ok, good. You had me worried for a second.”
“I told you sweetheart, you don’t need to worry about anything. Not anymore.” He gave your leg a squeeze, the adrenaline pulsing through his veins.
His bloodlust had been sated for the past two months but now it had come back with avengence. He needed to kill and he had a particular target in mind who he was sure would satisfy his urges more so than any that had come before.
But it was better to keep you in the dark. You were so happy lately and Spencer loved it when you were happy. He’d use visiting his mom as a distraction and he’d sneak off and extract his plan solo. You’d never need to know and your blissful little bubble didn’t need to be popped.
It was a win-win.
He ran over his plan in his head as he drove, making sure he had all the little details secure in his mind. There was no margin for error here, this had to be the perfect kill.
The two of you mostly stayed silent until he’d made it about another half hour up the interstate and you huffed out a loud breath.
“Goddamnit,” you grumbled. “I need to pee again.”
***
Visiting Spencer’s mom had been pretty safe for the two of you given that if anyone ever asked her if you’d been here, she most likely wouldn’t remember. You spent a few hours with her upon your arrival in Vegas before Spencer took you for a three course meal at the very expensive Capital Grille on Las Vegas strip.
After he walked you down to Caesars Palace in which you expected to be having drinks and were extremely surprised when Spencer strolled up to the reception desk stating he had a room reserved under his other alias Jack Waters.
A bellboy led you up to one of the top floors and showed you to the Palace Premium Suite. You stood in the middle of the grand living room while Spencer tipped the young man and once the door was closed and the two of you were alone, he sidled up behind you and wrapped his arms around your waist.
“You like it?” He spoke as he kissed the side of your face.
“Wh-what is happening?” You laughed, still in awe. “What did I do to deserve this?”
“Consider it a belated, one night honeymoon.” His lips trailed down your neck. “And I guess just a small token of my gratitude for everything you’ve done for me. I know I have a hard time saying how I feel but I love you so fucking much and I am the luckiest man in the world to call you my wife.”
“Spencer,” you sighed happily in your arms. “I love you too. And I’m the lucky one.”
“Ok, now we’ve got that out of the way, tell me Mrs Reid, where would you like me to fuck you first?”
You moaned at his words, turning yourself around in his arms and attaching your lips together.
“What are my options?” You spoke against his lips, feeling his dick growing hard as he pressed into you.
“Well there are multiple couches, a four poster king sized bed, a pretty decadent bathtub, or there’s my personal favourite option…” his hands wandered under the hem of your shirt and over your back.
“Which is?” You took hold of his lapels, tearing your lips away from his so you could look at him.
His pupils were already blown out with his lust, his lip quirked up into a sinful smirk.
“We’re way up high, with some of the best views of Vegas.” He tugged your shirt up, quickly getting it over your head and tossing it aside. He took hold of your biceps and turned you back around to face the huge floor to ceiling windows overlooking the strip, his lips moving back to your ear. “My choice would be to fuck you up against the window. But that’s just me.”
He was already leading you towards the windows, lips sucking the flesh of your neck, his free reaching between your bodies and unhooking your bra. He quickly got it off your arms and dropped it on the floor, and you made no protest when he pushed your front up against the window. You hissed slightly at the cool glass as it touched your nipples and Spencer smiled to himself.
It was all a part of his plan. He would render you dumb with sex then run you an indulgent bubble bath with a large glass of wine to soothe your post-coital muscles. Then he’d tell you he’d left something at his mother's facility which was purposefully on the other side of town to buy him some time.
He’d tell you he hopefully wouldn’t be gone long, but traffic on the strip at night could be a nightmare and he’d be back as soon as possible. He’d inform you of the bar and the spa downstairs if you wanted to use either while he was gone.
And while you were preoccupied having a drink or getting a massage or whatever, he would seek out his target, slice his throat and be back before you knew it, with any luck rejuvenated enough for round two.
He continued kissing your neck while he started unbuttoning your pants and you helped him wiggle them down your legs and kick them off. You could see Spencer in the reflection in the window start to work on the buttons of his shirt. You caught his eye and he smiled at you.
He shucked his shirt off and pressed his bare chest against your back, caging you against the window with his hips, his hard cock pressing into your back. His lips moved back to your neck and worked on sucking deep bruises into your flesh whilst one hand wandered over your stomach and quickly dipped inside your panties.
You closed your eyes as two fingers were soon pressing inside of you, his thumb massaging your clit. You rolled your ass backwards, grinding against his erection but you wobbled a little on your legs at the feeling of his fingers inside you.
With your eyes closed your mind wandered of its own accord. There were times when you and Spencer were together that you found yourself thinking of Jesse, most specifically the last time you’d seen him when he’d fingered you in his doorway.
It was entirely involuntary, you certainly didn’t mean to think about him and his strong tattooed arms and the large vein in his forearm that pulsed when his fingers were inside of you. You didn’t mean to imagine his wiry beard scratching your face as he kissed you. And you most definitely didn’t mean to picture him fucking you whilst Spencer was. Sometimes it just happened.
Spencer was by no means an idiot and he knew you still thought about GI Mountain Man. He knew exactly what you looked like post orgasm and he’d known what the two of you had been doing when you’d said goodbye to him, even if you’d tried hard to hide it. There had been three, maybe four times when you’d said his name under your breath when he was fucking you but you’d never seemed to notice.
Of course it bothered him, a part of him wanted to drive back to Butte and kill Jesse just to make himself feel better. But he was trying to be better for you and so he ignored the occasional slip of the tongue.
Your hand snaked around his wrist, holding him firmly in place in your panties. He knew you were thinking about Jesse now, call it intuition, or gut instinct, but whatever it was Spencer knew.
He used his free hand to relieve himself from his pants and move them down his thighs enough so they were out of his way. He was almost positive that Jesse wasn’t as big as him, couldn’t fill you up the way he could.
In one swift move, he removed his fingers from inside of you and hurriedly plunged his cock between your legs, causing you to gasp and fall flat against the window. Your eyes sprung open at the sudden intrusion and you made eye contact with him in the reflection.
“Jesus Christ, Spence.” You panted as he bottomed out. “A little warning next to him.”
He chose to ignore you, placing his hands flush on the glass either side of your head as he started thrusting into you. He kept eye contact through the glass, not letting you close your eyes for fear you would start thinking of Jesse again.
It’s not fair. I’ve done everything for her, I fucking married her and it’s still not enough. What makes him better than me? Why is he still on her mind?
He tried not to let his anger cloud his judgement and had to rein himself back from fucking you too hard. He forced himself to slow down, thrusting you languidly against the window. You moaned in sync with one another while the Strip below illuminated you both in its chaotic glow.
You kept your eyes on his in the reflection while he fucked you and all thoughts of Jesse left your head. When you were clenching around him, legs shaking from your impending orgasm, he took hold of your left hand and ran his fingers over your wedding band.
“You’re mine.” He mumbled, his face contorting as his own orgasm snuck up on him. “Mine. My partner in crime, my wife, my…fuck.”
He groaned the last word, head falling to your shoulder as he suddenly came inside of you. You whimpered as he filled you up, pushing you over the edge and your legs almost gave up with the force of your orgasm.
You fell back against Spencer’s chest, his arms holding you up right even though his own legs were shaking. As you fought to catch your breath he peeled you away from the window as he slid out of you and helped you over to the couch.
You collapsed onto it, panting heavily and pulling Spencer down with you. He laid his head on your chest and listened to the sound of your erratic heartbeat.
You laid like this for a while until you were both breathing at a normal rhythm and Spencer untangled himself from your arms and got to his feet. He tucked himself away and tugged his pants back up before buttoning them.
“I’m gonna run you a bubble bath.” He smiled softly down at you.
“You gonna join me in it?” You smiled back sleepily.
“Sadly not, I realised I left my wallet at Bennington.” He went to head towards the bathroom but he didn’t get far.
“You had your wallet at dinner.” You sat up, frowning at the back of his head.
Spencer froze in his tracks. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
“Uh,” he turned back to face you, quickly trying to think on his feet, which would be a lot easier if his head wasn’t still hazy from his orgasm. “Not my wallet, I meant the burner phone. I should go and get it.”
You scrutinised him for a moment but thankfully for him your own head was also bleary and wouldn’t allow you to think too much into it.
“Ok.” You shrugged, flopping back to the couch.
Spencer exhaled heavily, continuing on his way to the bathroom. He started the water, pouring in an ample amount of bubble bath and leaving the tub to fill.
“There’s a bar downstairs and a spa, even a casino. If you get bored with the bath and I’m not back, go nuts.” He spoke as headed back into the room, locating the bottle of red wine he’d had sent to the room before you arrived.
He made quick work of the cork and poured you a large glass before coming back over to the couch and dropping down next to you. He handed you the glass and you sat yourself up against the cushions again.
“Hmm I like honeymoons.” You smiled, bringing your glass to your lips and taking a small sip.
Moments later your face fell and you gagged, thrusting the glass back at Spencer before leaping from the couch and running as fast as your legs could carry you to the bathroom.
Spencer heard the toilet seat slam back against the cistern and then the distinctive sound of vomiting echoed around the room.
Realistically he was smart enough to figure out what was going on, as were you, but both of your heads were clouded by other thoughts and so you both missed the obvious.
Spencer padded back to the bathroom and found you on your knees, wiping your hand over your mouth. You looked up at him with large, sad eyes.
“The wine turned against me.” You whined. “Goddamn gas-and-go hotdogs.”
Spencer smiled sadly at you and slid to the floor next to you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders as the bath continued to fill behind him.
“Are you going to be ok if I pop out?” Please god say yes, I need this, it has to be tonight.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. It’s passed again now, I guess I just won’t be drinking any wine tonight.” You sighed. “You go, do your thing.”
“As long as you’re sure.” Spencer pushed himself back to his feet and then held his hands out to help you up.
“Of course. Do you think you’ll be gone for long?”
“No idea, traffic at this time of night will probably be a pain, but I promise I’ll hurry.” He stroked your hair back from your face.
“Ok.” You nodded, lowering yourself to sit on the edge of the tub. “Go, I’m fine. I can run a bath.”
“I won’t be long.” He went to kiss you but then thought better of it as your breath smelt like vomit. Instead he kissed his first and middle finger and then placed them on your lips making you chuckle.
Soon he was heading out of the room in search of his bag so he could change into jeans and t-shirt. The weapons were in the Chevvy’s glovebox, ready for their next assignment.
He dressed quickly and got his shoes on, throwing on a hoodie before grabbing the car keys and heading to the door.
“Be safe, sweetheart.” He called as he reached for the handle.
“Love you.” You replied and it made his heart swell every time he heard you say that.
As he opened the door, his wedding ring caught his eye and he rolled his lip between his teeth. He forced open the door, ignoring the way his heart practically exploded when he looked at his ring. He had a job to focus on.
But the truth was, you were the only thing keeping him together. He was lost and you’d found him, taken him in and patched him up. His scars both mental and physical didn’t phase you, if anything you’d loved him harder because of them. You’d fixed him up in ways you’d never understand and he hoped he wasn’t making a huge mistake in what he was about to do.
He was fairly certain you’d never walk away from him, that nothing he could do could be worse than the things he’d already put you through. Because he was sure one day all that thread keeping him together would come unravelled and if he had no one there to stitch him back up again he would be torn so deeply there would be no repairing him. And god only knows how quickly a broken man would devolve.
No, it's no wonder I feel broken,
Are you the one to fix me up, patching up the work they done?
Try and sew me,
So thread the needle, tie it off, teach me how to trust someone.
Really hoping that you stay,
That you never walk away,
Every word I shouldn't say, I shouldn't say, I shouldn't say it.
Do you feel the stress in me,
Steady bursting at the seams?
You're the only one I need to make me complete, yeah.
Stitch me up, stitch me up, don't tear me apart,
I've been stuck in the rut, patched up in the dark.
Stitch me up, stitch me up, there's pins in my heart, oh,
Pardon all my precious scars.
No, it's no wonder you've been feeling,
Like a doll in lost and found, so mistreated, thrown around.
Who you kidding? (You kidding),
Every flaw and every fray, that's what makes you sexy to me.
Really hoping that I stay,
I could never walk away,
Every word we shouldn't say, we shouldn't say, we shouldn't say it.
Do you feel the stress in me,
Steady bursting at the seams?
You're the only one I need to make me complete, yeah.
Stitch me up, stitch me up, don't tear me apart,
I've been stuck in the rut, patched up in the dark.
Stitch me up, stitch me up, there's pins in my heart, oh,
Pardon all my precious scars.
Elegant and broken, tasteful, tattered clothing,
I guess we've been caught in the middle of love.
Motive through emotion, damaged but we're golden,
I guess we've been caught in the middle of love.
Elegant and broken, tasteful, tattered clothing,
I guess we've been caught in the middle of love.
Motive through emotion, damaged but we're golden,
I guess we've been caught in the middle of love.
Stitch me up, stitch me up, don't tear me apart,
I've been stuck in the rut, patched up in the dark.
Stitch me up, stitch me up, there's pins in my heart, oh,
Pardon all my precious scars.
Really hoping that you stay,
Pray you never walk away,
Pardon all my precious scars.
Stitch me up, stitch me up, there's pins in my heart,
Oh, pardon all my precious scars.
@bubblebuttwade @jay-2s-world @daddy-dotcom @nomajdetective
#spencer reid#spencer reid fanfiction#spencer reid fanfic#spencer reid smut#spencer reid x you#spencer reid x y/n#spencer reid x fem! reader#spencer reid x reader#criminal minds#criminal minds fanfiction
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Drive My Car
Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Reader
Having made your living as a successful mechanic, you're not one to be underestimated. Rooster picks up on that quickly.
3.3k words Top Gun Masterlist
Lieutenant Bradley Bradshaw was in desperate need of a vacation. Having recently succeeded in an extremely dangerous mission, he felt he deserved a break.
Apparently so did the rest of his team. He wasn't quite sure how they did it, but when he mentioned he rented a house in Joshua Tree about half of the team invited themselves along.
So there he was, on his way to the rental house a few hours early to pick up the keys. The lonely highway was a pleasant drive. With expanses of desert on either side, the view wasn't bad at all. It was so beautiful he actually pulled over for a second to admire it and enjoy a quiet moment before the chaos that his vacation would surely be.
After a minute or two, he decided to get back on the road. But when a few miles passed the car sputtered to a stop. Clearly, he'd used up all his luck on the uranium plant mission. Rooster let out a huff, resting his head against the wheel. How could this get worse? He got his answer when smoke started coming from under the hood. In a flash, he was stumbling out of the car.
Rooster put his hands on his head, panicking. He was more than an hour away from home, there was no body shop in sight, and his car could not be driven.
"Need some help there?" A voice asked from behind him. He turned to see an older man hopping down from his tow truck. Rooster let out a sigh of relief.
"Yes, actually," he told the man. Together the two of them managed to get the Bronco on the back of his tow truck. The man, Marty, he'd learned, told Rooster he'd take him to the auto shop he worked at a few miles away.
They pulled into the parking lot of a big building with a large blue sign that read "Doc's Auto Shop." When they parked, Marty unloaded the Bronco from the back of the truck. Rooster looked around at the busy shop, taking in the vintage vehicles and the more modern ones he saw.
"Hey Johnny," Marty yelled from behind Rooster, "go get Doc!" He saw the young boy who had been drinking a coke put it down and race into the garage. At about the same time, he saw a woman walk out at the other end.
“Marty," you called to the older man, "what've you got over there?"
“Come see,” he said as you made your way over.
“She’s a beaut-“ You turned towards who you presumed to be the car's owner. He looked just as vintage as his vehicle. Not that you were complaining- you loved the oldies. Music, cars, fashion- it spoke to you. If nothing else, they sure did have style back then. “A 1972 Ford Bronco?”
Your words seem to catch him off guard. “You… know your stuff,” he nodded. "We're just waiting for the owner to come take a look." You raised your eyebrows.
"Really?" You asked.
"Yeah," he confirms, "it was pretty bad- smoke coming out from under the hood."
"Geez," you said, pretending to be worried. "I hope the owner can fix it for you."
"Doc!" You turned to see Johnny running up to you, out of breath. "Marty's looking for y-" the boy cut himself off when he saw you were already talking to him. He let out a huff, and his shoulders sagged. Johnny shook his head and turned to go back into the garage.
"Sorry, kiddo!" You called after him. Turning back around, you saw the man in the Hawaiian shirt looking at you with wide eyes.
"You're-?" He began to ask.
"This is Doc," Marty introduced you to the man, and his eyes cut to the sign over the door. You gave him your real name as you shook his hand.
"Rooster," he told you, then chuckled at the confusion on your face. "Bradley," he amended.
You smile, "Doc was my father, I've just inherited his nickname. And his business."
“She practically grew up under a car,” Marty says, clapping his hand on your shoulder, "she's earned it."
"Well, I really put my foot in my mouth, huh?" Rooster asked, looking sheepish.
You shook your head, dismissing his concern with a laugh. "Your Bronco's giving you trouble?" You asked, eager to change the topic. If you could get back to work you could stop awkwardly staring at the gloriously sun-kissed man before you.
Rooster ran a hand through his hair. The image of which surely would not leave you for a while. "Gave out on me in the middle of the road," he sighed, "I was lucky Marty saw me."
You nodded, considering what could've gone wrong. "Well, my last appointment just called and canceled, so I can take a look right now."
“Are you sure?" He asked, afraid to inconvenience you after he'd probably offended you.
"Absolutely," you told him. When you saw the worry on his face, you stopped. "I'll be careful," you tried to reassure him, "in the meantime, we have a very comfortable waiting room." Marty took this as his cue to lead Rooster away from the car so you could do your job.
About an hour later you entered the waiting room with some bad news. Based on Rooster's reaction, it clearly showed on your face. He stood up right away, waiting for your diagnosis.
"You've got a coolant leak," you grimace. His head fell forward in defeat.
"How long will it-"
"About a week," you told him regretfully. His eyes widened you smiled sympathetically. "I'll have to order you a new head gasket and it'll take a few days for it to come in."
You could see the gears turning in his brain. "Could it sit here for a few days if you finish it early?"
Your brow furrowed as you considered his question. Slowly you nodded, "I suppose-"
"Perfect- I have to make a call," Rooster says, rushing out of the waiting room. The bell jingled behind him and you turned towards Carol who sat at the desk, confused. She just shrugged at you.
In the parking lot Rooster scrolled through his contacts, attempting to find the only other person who would probably already be on the road.
"Phoenix!" He said joyfully when she picked up.
"What do you want, Bradshaw?"
"Did you happen to ignore my request to not come until later and already start driving?" He asked, hopefully.
"...Maybe," she said reluctantly.
"Perfect," he sighed in relief.
"Perfect?" Natasha asked him, confused.
"Perfect!" He confirmed, "I need you to come pick me up."
"What?!"
"Long story, car broke down, gorgeous mechanic fixing it, I'll send you my location." Rooster said, hanging up on her. He texted her where he was, then pushed back through the waiting room doors.
"Are you done for the day?" He asked, seemingly in better spirits. The question caught you off guard.
"Sorry?"
"Don't be sorry unless you're too busy to show me a good place to eat." He sends a charming smile your way.
"In that case, I'm not sorry at all." You smile at him. "You mind waiting for a minute?" He waves you off, and you run to change out of the clothes that'd been stained with motor oil.
Five minutes later you were back and better than ever. "So where are we off to?" Your companion asked as he followed you out of the waiting room.
"We're making the terribly long voyage across the street," you said. He chuckled at your poor joke.
"And what distinguishes this diner from every other one in small-town America?" Rooster asked you teasingly.
"Me," you replied indignantly, pushing open the door. "And some pretty sweet pie." A genuine smile crossed his face. You grabbed a seat in a corner booth and he planted himself across from you. Your friend, Jennie, brought two glasses of water over and promised she'd be back to take your order.
"So what brings you out this way?" You asked, taking a sip.
"I'm going on vacation," Rooster tells you.
"Exciting," you nod. His facial expression suggested otherwise. "Not exciting?"
"Well, it was supposed to be a relaxing solo retreat to Joshua Tree, but everyone in the Dagger Squad highjacked it." He huffed.
You paused, "your friend group's name is 'The Dagger Squad'?" You asked skeptically.
"They're my colleagues, really," he corrected you.
"Do you sell knives?" You ask, confused. "Actually, that would explain your nickname."
"I fly planes for the Navy." Your eyes widened at his words.
"Wow, I was way off." He chuckled at your words. "So one of your fellow pilots will pick you up and whisk you off to your vacation?"
"That's the plan," Rooster confirmed. "I'll pick up the Bronco on the way back if that's okay."
"Sure thing," you told him. Soon enough Jennie came by to take your order.
"The mac and cheese for me and the double burger with fries for the lady, please," she chuckled lightly at your order and nodded, heading toward the kitchen.
"I didn't realize we were close enough for you to order for me," he said snottily.
"Oh please," you waved off his words, "you would've ordered the wrong thing." Rooster's brows rose in an instant. "I did you a favor!" You insisted.
"We'll see about that, hon."
"It's actually pronounced 'Doc'," you said, and snickered at the unamused glance he threw you.
The diner wasn't crowded that early on a Tuesday, so your food came out in record time. When Rooster took a bite of his burger, he practically moaned.
You smirked at him, "See, aren't you glad I hijacked your order?' He glared at you.
"Shut up," he said, mouth full of food. You laughed at him as you dug into your bowl of mac and cheese. "Did you get that off the kids' menu?" He mocked, and you took an overly dramatic gasp.
"And what's so wrong with the kids' menu?" You asked him, brow raised.
"Nothing," he said, and you nodded happily, "if you're a kid." Your eyes widened at him, and he snickered at you.
"Oh, just eat your burger you animal," you snapped at him. He had practically already finished it.
"I was hungry!" He said defensively, and you shrugged.
"Some people like to maintain a certain level of decorum," you teased. He rolled his eyes at your words, still smiling.
"And you eating a seven-year-old boy's serving of Mac and Cheese just screams poise."
"Who needs poise when they have room for pie?" You were quick to shoot back.
"Touche." He nodded.
"So when is your friend coming?" You asked him, taking another bite.
Rooster checked his watch, "Phoenix should be here in half an hour."
"Great-plenty of pie time." He chuckled at you.
"Is it really that good?"
"You're gonna eat those words." You promised him. "Hey, Jennie!" You called from across the store, "a slice of pecan pie, please." She rolled her eyes and gave you a thumbs up.
"Hey now, how do you know I don't have a pecan allergy?"
"You're not the type," you dismissed.
"I'm not the type to have an allergy?"
"You're not the type to have a nut allergy," you specified.
"And why not?"
"Because you're all," you hesitated, "warm and rich and chestnuts roasting on an open fire." Rooster smirked at you for a second. "And you look like you eat Reese's cups for breakfast." His face turned with a frown.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me."
"How can I-?" He was interrupted by a slice of pie being plopped between the two of you. You picked up both forks and graciously handed him one.
"Cheers," you clinked your fork to his and he snickered. The two of you took a bite at the same time. You watched as his eyes lit up and he instantly went to get more on his fork.
"That good?" You mocked his words from earlier. He hummed in agreement as he shoved more in his mouth. You let out a laugh at his antics.
"I'm gonna eat it all if you don't hop to," he said, mouth full of pie. You were quick to start eating it.
After a surprisingly pleasant dinner, which Rooster had paid for despite your protests, he received a text that said his friend was there. The two of you stood up to head out of the diner, but he paused.
"Would you mind giving me your number?" You raised a brow. "So I can check in, you know? When I'm missing my baby?"
"You're really attached to that Bronco, huh?" You asked, taking his phone and entering your number.
"You might say that," he said, with faux thoughtfulness.
"Well, have a nice vacation, Rooster," you told him with a smile, "try not to let your colleagues annoy you too much"
He groaned, "we'll see."
"And try not to spend too much of it worrying about your car," you said, "or texting me worrying about your car." This earned you a flirty smile.
"No promises, darling." He winked.
You rolled your eyes at him, grinning. "I'll see you in a week."
"Are you sure you won't see me in your dreams?" He teased.
"Be careful what you wish for," you said, shaking your head, "my dreams are weird as shit."
He let out a chuckle, "see you then." You gave him a wave as he climbed into the passenger seat of a Subaru SVU.
"What was that all about?" Phoenix turned to him as he pulled the door shut.
"What was what?" He asked, defensively.
"Oh I don't know," she mocked, "the goofy grin on your face, the mystery container in your hand."
"This is pie." He told her.
"That doesn't explain shit!" She insisted.
"Fine, fine," he gave in, "I'll tell you everything, but you have to drive away before it gets weird." Natasha rolled her eyes and started down the road.
"So?" She demanded after a minute.
"The Bronco broke down and I may be putting the moves on the mechanic."
Natasha sighed, "you get her number?"
He grinned from ear to ear and nodded at her. "Unfortunately there was no piano in that diner so I had to rely on charm alone."
"You're so insufferable, Bradshaw."
"Thank you, Trace."
It had been a few hours since you'd gotten off of work. After taking a shower and eating dinner, you'd settled in on the couch to watch some tv. Just as a new episode started you heard your phone buzz.
How's my baby?
You rolled your eyes. There was only one person that text could've come from. You shook your head as you typed out a reply.
Literally the same - how's Joshua Tree?
It'd be better if I didn't have to hide
????
I don't want someone to take my pie
you're ridiculous
In response to your snide comment, he a selfie with his slice of pie.
Ridiculously good at keeping my food away from thieves
good luck with that, Rooster
;) what are you up to?
watching a show 🤷♀️
Somehow he kept a text conversation with you going for a while. At least until you told him you were tired from work and were going to bed.
The next day he, of course, pestered you a few times about his beloved car. But you were not expecting him to start another casual conversation with you.
So what do you do when you're not keeping my car company?
Is your vacation really this boring?
Yes.
What are you up to?
making dinner
and what are you having?
come on- there's not a swimming pool at the house you rented or something?
:(
fine. I'm making Kraft.
Do you only eat Mac and Cheese?
shut up
never ;)
you text like my twelve-year-old cousin
At least I don't have the diet of your twelve year old cousin
rude
true
:P
who texts like a twelve-year-old now?
still you
You laughed when you saw the bubbles pop up on the screen. All you could assume was that he was typing furiously on the other side of the screen. For the next few nights, it was the same routine. He'd text some stupid question loosely related to the state of his car, then twist the conversation to actually talk to you.
You actually enjoyed texting him. To the point where you were considering "accidentally" misplacing the gasket that had just come in for his Bronco. But you quickly dismissed that notion. Just because you'd be sad after he stopped texting you didn't mean you could sabotage your own work.
Finally, a week after you'd first met him, he sent you a text saying he'd be by around noon the next day to grab the Bronco. You'd actually been too busy to replace the part yet, so you'd really have to dedicate the morning to Bradley's "baby" as he liked to call it.
As midday rolled around the next day, the car was looking pretty damn good. You'd gotten it all fixed up and were currently washing it. And no, that definitely wasn't overkill.
A whistle sounded from behind you, and you turned to see the man you'd met a week ago. The one who'd totally been flirting with you over text all week. You wondered briefly if he only wanted discounted service.
"Lookin' good"
"Well, I've been working on her all morning," you told him.
"You sure I was talking about the car, honey?" He asked. You raised a brow, then turned the hose on him.
"HEY!" He shouted. "Now what on Earth was that for?"
"Just a warning," you said playfully.
"Fine, then." He replied, approaching the vehicle. Before you knew it he had reached into the wash bucket and threw a handful of soap suds at you.
"Oh you are so in for it," you said as you started chasing him with the hose. He picked up the bucket and continued to throw soap suds in retaliation. After a few minutes of play fighting, he interrupted.
"Truce, truce," he said with his hands held up. You reluctantly agreed. "How do expect me to drive home when I'm soaked to the bone?" He asked you.
"Easy, just take your clothes off." You replied. He snorted.
"Now you want me to be arrested for public nudity?" Rooster asked you playfully.
"Everyone would be too busy staring to call the police," you assured him.
"Oh yeah?" He asked.
"Absolutely," you assured him.
"Well if you insist," he said, tugging his shirt over his head. That- you were not expecting. Nor were you expecting such a defined set of abs. You knew he was fit but goddamn.
"It seems to be working," he teased.
"Oh shut up," you said, smacking him with a towel you'd set aside to dry the car off.
"You're really gonna treat a customer like that?" He asked you, looking around, "where are your customers anyways?"
"We're closed on Saturdays," you told him softly, working on drying the Bronco off.
"Oh well, in that case," he said, grabbing your waist and spinning you around. Your eyes just about popped out of your head as you found yourself in his arms.
"Bradley?"
"Can I kiss you?" He asked, a contemplative look on his face.
"Are you gonna put your shirt back on?" His brows raised at your question.
"No," he shrugged.
"Then, yes" you nodded. He let out a laugh but was interrupted as your lips met his own. Instantly Bradley's arms wrapped around you, pulling you closer. Only, while you were distracted, he reached behind you to grab the bucket of soapy water. When you were least expecting it, he dumped it over your head and ended your temporary truce.
-------------------------
I'm so sorry, I know nothing about cars this was just for the vibe.
#rooster x reader#Bradley Bradshaw x reader#top gun maverick#top gun x reader#Bradley bradhsaw#top gun fic
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BuzzFeed Quiz: Which joelkémon are you most compatible with?
🚨 OMG @missannwinchester made a BuzzFeed quiz in collaboration with @not-a-unique-snowflake-blog to find out which of my Joels you're most compatible with and it's amazing and beautiful 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 blog FAQ. Text version below the cut.
I got Night Walks, hell yeah 💚. but I'm gonna take it more times bc as usual I had some indecision and it has six Joels, five of whom I want 😅😅 The six results:
Night walks
Raider Joel
Left in Lincoln
Stepdad
Thighs Out
Vampire
Text descriptions of options:
(reading the blocks left to right). If you want to send your answers I can take the quiz for you.
Color: red, white, green, Black, yellow, or blue
Perfect date: movie, a meal at a restaurant by the ocean, opera/theater, cozy night in with fireplace, a jetski, a picnic
Your Perfect weather: sunny no clouds, cloudy, thunderstorm, rainy, sunny with some light clouds, one backlit cloud in a very blue sky
Holiday destination: a camper in the desert, a palm tree in the ocean, a woodsy cottage, Paris (Eiffel tower), a pool at night, a castle
Favorite food: Pizza, casserole, soup, Steak, tacos, poultry
Place to live: rocky coast, very modern house with big windows, a modern house more warmly lit with big windows and a tree, a white house with a dark roof taking up much of the pic, white house with red door and shutters, a rustic looking cabin by a lake and mountains but no woods
Outfit: closeup of a blue bikini or bra, long white floral dress in a field, red floral minidress, jeans and a sweater, bikini with a surfboard, yoga pants and sports bra
What you look for in a partner: loyalty, openness, independence, sensitivity, composure, looks
Lyrics: a. "I think you're sweet like rock candy warm like beaches that leave me sandy why do you leave me with watercolor eyes" b. "You're a careless con and a reckless liar but baby nobody can compare to the way you get down, down, down" c. "I'm smokin while I'm running on my treadmill, but I'm cutting up rkses. Could it be I fell for another loser" d. "It took 13 beaches to find one empty but finally it's mine. with dripping peaches I'm camera ready almost all the time." e. "She wore blue velvet bluer than velvet was the night softer than satin was the light from the stars. F. "But if you send for me you know I'll come and if you call for me you know I'll run to you I'll run to you I'll run run run."
Drink: beer, piña colada, champagne, whiskey, tequila shot, red wine.
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I'm trying to create a modern desert house and I think I did a great job with the landscaping! Desert landscape is so pretty, and I think I'd love to garden in a desert zone because you can't just throw things in the ground, you really have to be creative with the arid flora that's available. I live in the Piedmont area of the US East Coast and gardening here is a dream because of how rich our clay soil is and how many insects and birds we have but desert gardening requires thinking a lot more creatively. I had a lot of fun placing succulents, cactus and desert flowers in rocks beds, which is what I would do if I had to garden in this climate. The exterior landscaping has a modern border enclosing the plants, while the inside garden border uses rocks to give it a cozier feel. I placed container plants because even if you can't grow as much in the ground in a desert zone, you can still use containers to create a beautiful outdoor space with the illusion of more greenery.
I'm still trying to figure out how to decorate and build, that's not my forte at all lol
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"I don’t care how spiritual you are. How long you can melt in the sweat lodge. How many peyote or ayahuasca journeys that have blown your mind, how many master plant diets you’ve done or how well you can hold crow pose. I don’t care what planets fall in what houses on your birth chart, or how “silent” your meditation is. I don’t care how many crystals you have or how long you’ve gone without sugar, salt, spices or sex or how vegan your diet is.
I want to know how human you are. Can you sit at the feet of the dying despite the discomfort? Can you be with your grief, or mine, without trying to advise, fix or maintain it? I want to know that you can show up at the table no matter how shiny, chakra- aligned or complete you are- or not. Can you hold loving space for your beloveds in the depths of your own healing without trying to be big?
It doesn’t flatter me how many online healing trainings you have, that you live in the desert, forest or in a log cabin, or that you’ve mastered the art of tantra.
What turns me on is busy hands. Planting roots. That despite how tired you are, you make that phone call, you board that plane, you love your children, you feed your family.
I have no interest in how well you can ascend to 5D, astral travel or have out of body sex. I want to see how beautifully you integrate into ordinary reality with your unique magic, how you find beauty and gratitude in what’s surrounding you, and how present you can be in your relationships. How do you hold the ones you love in the midst of conflict? How do you take responsibility for your part? How do you make amends?
I want to know that you can show up and do the hard and holy things on this gorgeously messy Earth. I want to see that you can be sincere, grounded and compassionate as equally as you are empowered, fiery and magnetic. I want to know that even during your achievements, you can step back and be humble enough to still be a student.
What’s beautiful and sexy and authentic is how well you can continue to celebrate others no matter how advanced you’ve become. What’s truly flattering is how much you can give despite how full you’ve made yourself. What’s honestly valuable is how f***ing better of a human you can be, in a world that is high off of spiritual materialism and jumping the next scapegoat for “freedom.”
At the end of the day I don’t care how brave you are. How productive, how popular, how enlightened you are. At the end of the day, I want to know that you were kind. That you were real. I want to know that you can step down from the pedestal from time to time to kiss the earth and let your hair get dirty and your feet get muddy, and join the dance with us all."~
~Taylor Rose Godfrey
A modern day call to shifting from spiritual consumerism to returning to human kind… heart inspired by Oriah Mountain Dreamer’s, The Invitation
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Why ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ chose Palm Springs as the setting for its hedonistic mystery world
BY GLENN WHIPP, ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST, AUG. 29, 2022 9 AM PT
Olivia Wilde remembers driving to Palm Springs for the first time 20 years ago, taking in the Midcentury Modern architecture, the palm trees, the lush golf courses and the flowing fountains, a verdant city plopped in the middle of a desert. Every time the native New Yorker looked out the window, the same thought ran through her head: “If we settled Mars, this is what it would look like.”
“It felt like the ultimate expression of man’s dominance and power,” Wilde says over the phone, taking a walk around New York. “It’s so beautiful, but it’s also a really strange place. If not for all the creature comforts that man has created, you would die very quickly out here. And it’s the desert, so it’s spooky. I recall thinking that someday we have to make a horror movie out there.”
That day has arrived with “Don’t Worry Darling,” opening in theaters Sept. 23 after world premiering next week at the Venice Film Festival, a psychological thriller about a couple (Florence Pugh and Harry Styles) living in a utopian desert community called the Victory Project. It’s a place where men leave in the mornings in their vintage Corvettes and Pontiacs for mysterious jobs while the women stay home, make the beds, scrub the bathtubs and cook up a pot roast for dinner. The ethos, in the words of the community’s leader, Frank (Chris Pine), is all about mining “pure, unbridled potential.” That and hedonism. The women must keep the liquor cabinets fully stocked too.
As the song goes, “It’s the good life” — if you’re one of the men nuzzling your submissive wife over a bacon and eggs breakfast. Otherwise, to use another line from the same Sinatra song, “You hide all the sadness you feel.” The tension between the colony’s seductive glamour and the level of control it imposes on the women who live there (imagine the most draconian HOA and you get the idea) gradually becomes exposed as Pugh’s character begins to question her surroundings over the course of the film’s two-hour running time.
There was a moment when “Don’t Worry Darling” might not have happened in Palm Springs. Wilde, writer Katie Silberman and production designer Katie Byron, the trio who collaborated on Wilde’s directorial debut, the acclaimed 2019 teen comedy “Booksmart,” had embarked on an early road trip to the desert to start scouting locations. It was July 2020, hotter than hell and the beginning of the pandemic, which made the Victory Project’s life of revolving dinner parties feel like a complete fantasy. Taking in all the butterfly rooflines of communities like Canyon View Estates, they were certain they had found the movie’s setting.
But because of COVID, Wilde says, “very reasonable powers that be” suggested moving the production to New Zealand to save money. Wilde understood the logic but resisted, believing that, on a subconscious level, Palm Springs connected to what she calls the “patriarchal masculinity” that was essential to the story she was telling.
“For me, New Zealand is this ecological gem that’s evidence of nature’s power,” Wilde says, “and feels connected to Mother Nature and femininity. I think if I made a sequel about the matriarchy, New Zealand would be a reasonable place to go because it’s a place where you go to be humbled by nature. That’s the opposite of what the character Frank wants. He wants people to feel that nature is humbled in their presence, that man has molded nature to his will.”
The location for Frank’s home was vitally important, and Wilde lucked out in securing the Kaufmann Desert House, a marvel of Modernism, a home made from glass, steel and Utah stone, epitomizing the indoor-outdoor Southern California lifestyle aesthetic. The home, built in 1946 to the designs of Richard Neutra, has been immortalized in photographs, including Slim Aarons’ “Poolside Gossip,” a shot that, coincidentally, Wilde had pinned to her wall while she was developing “Don’t Worry Darling.”
“To have that image on the wall and then be able to crawl inside it felt like that scene in ‘Mary Poppins’ when they jump into the chalk drawings on the sidewalk,” Wilde says.
The movie makes use of a couple of other Palm Springs landmarks, the City Hall and the Visitors Center, both designed by renowned architect Albert Frey. But for another key location, the building that stands in as the Victory Project’s mysterious headquarters (employees only!), the film’s location manager, Chris Baugh, ventured a couple of hours north to the Mojave Desert community of Newberry Springs. There, atop a 150-foot cinder cone, sits a building known as the Volcano House, a saucer-like structure that appears to have materialized from another planet or dimension.
“We got shivers down our spines when we first saw it,” Byron says. Adds cinematographer Matthew Libatique: “It just feels like it melts into the landscape. It’s a trek to get out there, but when everyone saw it, they knew: This is it. This is what the Victory Project’s headquarters would look like.”
The triumph associated with the community’s name appears to be confined, as the film’s trailer hints, to a small slice of the population. And yet, Wilde says, it’s easy to be seduced by iconography of the midcentury, Rat Pack era, which is why she hoped to keep “Don’t Worry Darling” from being didactic in its depiction of its patriarchal world.
“There’s a recklessness to the debauchery that feels almost aspirational to us today,” Wilde says, “Because it feels like a world without consequence. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find it really compelling and alluring. I didn’t want to make a preachy feminist parable that depicts men as villains. I think the film is about our collective complicity in this futuristic infrastructure that objectifies women.
“And what I found so interesting was the complicity in myself,” she continues. “That feeling of, ‘Oh, I’m all about new-wave feminism and smash the patriarchy.’ But here I am loving this era — and you can use the Rat Pack as an example of it — that was really horrendous for women. That tension between knowing something’s wrong but still being very seduced by it is where the movie sits. I want the audience to be tugged back and forth between those emotions.”
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loving in rome’s heart - steddie ff.
summary: it’s been a long and tiring day full with fighting his feelings, and now steve’s just relaxing on his balcony with a cigarette between his lips. then he sees him, more beautiful than ever. eddie.
note: modern steddie au in rome, enjoy the little lovebirds <3 inspired by love by lana del rey & maroon by taylor swift
The moon was shining down the lively streets of Rome, the hot summer air as thick as ever. The little coffees and restaurants were still open and Steve could see all of the people laughing and having fun a bit farther away. He was only wearing his shorts as he was leaning on the barrier of his balcony, a cigarette between his plump lips. The balcony doors were open to his apartment, where his small table light was one, and some old music was playing from his speakers. His eyes were wondering around the streets, looking for familiar face and beautiful lights everywhere, but then suddenly his gaze got hooked up with someone’s. He didn’t even notice when he got there, but now he couldn’t take his eyes off of him.
Eddie. His Eddie.
He removed the cigarette from between his lips, putting it out on the barrier. Eddie was looking at Steve with a shy smile on his face, he was close enough to hear if he speaks a single word. He was leaning against the side of the the house that faced Steve’s apartment. His hair was tied up, putting his face more on display and oh god. Steve was barely blinking, not wanting to miss any moment when he could admire the beauty of his. They’re weren’t lovers. At least, they weren’t outsaid lovers. But sometimes, only sometimes he dared to let his mind wonder all over Eddie’s body and what must it be like under the covers. Under the ripped jeans and the 80′s band shirts. And sometimes he was thinking about one very specific thing: would Eddie let him to kiss him?
At the thought Steve looked away from Eddie and cleared his throat before looking back again.
“Will you just stand there?” he asked, straightening his back.
“Want me to not just stand here?” Eddie questioned back, playful smile rushing to his lips. There was something about Eddie that Steve just couldn’t figure. He was studying philosophy in university, but he was pretty sure that no one could explain that wonder that Eddie Munson was.
Moments later Eddie was in the staircase of the apartment complex. The smell of dust filled his lungs, but Steve adored to live in this old building and everything that Steve adored or found special, it was special for Eddie, too. He rushed up on the stairs to the third floor, sweat forming on his forehead under his bangs as he was quite literally aching to finally face Steve.
As he reached the doorway, the door was already open and Steve was standing there, swaying on his heels, eyes shining in the dim light of the hallway lamp.
“Come in.” he navigated him in, like Eddie hasn’t been there before at least twenty times. He knew the details of Steve apartment, knew the routine of everything and it was basically his second home. Steve was his first, because he was the closest Eddie ever felt to something safe.
Eddie sat down on the couch, sinking between the multiple pillows that were carefully placed there. Steve slowly walked into the room then to his music player to switch the songs on it. While he was looking for the right one, Eddie was keeping his eyes on the shape of Steve’s back, the little curves and moles that stunned him ever so often when he could get a chance to see them. Steve was focusing on finding the right song, humming something to himself. It was so hot in the room and Eddie couldn’t use his mind, everything felt numb and lustful. He catched himself standing up from the couch, and walking towards Steve. He gently touched the top of his back, careful not to scare him. Steve tensed for a second before completely melting into the soft touch of Eddie’s hand. Eddie felt like his throat was a desert, as Steve’s body was radiating heat against his chest. He slowly led his fingers over the sensitive, sun colored skin, right down against the line of Steve’s spine, stopping above the top of Steve’s shorts. Eddie kept his breath back, waiting for Steve’s reaction. He finally chose the right song, so he turned to Eddie, face fadedly flashed with the color of soft maroon. This was one of the closest they have ever been to each other, but either of them moved farther away. The melody was softly playing the backround, but Steve suddenly didn’t even hear the song he spent minutes on choosing.
Eddie moved his hand to Steve’s face, cupping his cheek gently, while traicing over under his eye with his thumb.
“You know why I came here tonight?” Eddie asked, voice low and love soaked. Steve shook his head, eyes shifting to Eddie’s lips. “I wanted to kiss you, Steve.” he gave the answer to his own question. “I was coward last time, but I wanna act tonight, you know. Would you mind if I..?” the words were barely above a whisper, but Steve didn’t even need more.
“Please, Eddie.” he said his name sweeter than the greatest honey ever, and Eddie felt lightheaded as he finally leaned in, pressing his lips against Steve’s. Steve turned out to be the more eager one, not wanting to let go for a second. He pushed his whole body against Eddie’s, letting the man to put his hands on his naked hips, massaging them softly. Steve’s hands got up to Eddie’s hair, almost literally ripping the hair tie out of it before throwing it onto the ground and leading his fingers into the soft curls.
“Slow down, Stevie.” Eddie chuckled as he pulled back a bit, still pulling their bodies together.
“I don’t want to.” Steve said. He felt like he waited for too long, he wasted so much time. But now Eddie was between his arms, so close to him he could feel his breath on his lips and he didn’t want to let go for a second. “Stay the night?” he raised his eyebrow, his tone careful.
“It would be rude to kick me out after this.” Eddie joked before pressing a quick kiss onto Steve’s lips.
They stumbled into the bedroom, stealing kisses in those few steps while they got there. Steve just couldn’t keep his hands off of Eddie, not even really trying to do that. All he could think about was how much time he wasted while trying to convince himself Eddie was just a friend, and now his heart ached, flashing burning tears onto his cheeks while he was desperately trying to hide his face in Eddie’s neck. He didn’t even know why is this happening, but he was so overwhelmed that he couldn’t hold it back.
“Hey, Stevie? Baby, are you okay?” the pet name got right into Steve’s guts, only to make him pull Eddie closer. The sheets were messy after he forgot to make the bed after his late afternoon sleep. “What’s wrong? Please, speak up.” Eddie was gently brushing his hand over Steve back.
“I just missed you. Gosh, I missed you.” Steve gave the weak and small answer, pressing kisses onto Eddie’s neck. Eddie lied him onto the bed, climbing on the top of him before kissing down all over his upper body.
“I’m here now, Steve. I’ve got you, love. Don’t worry for a second.” he spoke the securing words and Steve could only nod, pulling Eddie up for another kiss and buckling his hips towards him.
They made love that night, not just with their bodies, but with their hearts as well. Their souls finally collided, after circling around each other for so long. And Steve never felt better. He was always chasing highs just to find himself running into lows, but Eddie lifted him up without asking. And Eddie felt like he finally found his home, his safe place, his hope. He was lost in almost all his life and Steve showed him a way.
So in the morning while Eddie was still sleeping, one leg thrown over the covers, Steve was sitting in the window frame with a cigarette in his hand, but instead of the view, this time his eyes were settled on his peacefully sleeping lover.
All he could think about was that he is so in love.
#steddie#eddie munson#steve and eddie#eddie stranger things#steddie fic#steve harrington#stranger things#steve x eddie#loverboys
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Best Places to Visit in Doha, Qatar
Let’s be honest: Tourism is increasing exponentially in Qatar. Whether you want to shop at the lively markets, experience a sand dune safari, or soak into the sunshine at a breezy beach, the country has it all.
If you are one who wants to immerse yourself in the buzzing nightlife, ultimate adventure, and blissful relaxation, we have got your back. Here we have come up with the highlights of the best places to visit in Doha, Qatar, in 2023.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm3t7thMhQUPzaLZWfu0qgsh14RXok6LJ
Let’s dive in
Fort Al Zubarah - a Must-See
The first and foremost on the list of the best place to visit in Qatar is Fort Al Zubarah. The site was privileged to get honored with the UNESCO World Heritage in the year 2013. It is considered an important site to preserve the rich history of early Qatari Culture. It is one of the iconic desert forts of Qatar, which you can’t miss out on if you are planning to visit Qatar soon.
It usually takes an hour’s drive outside Doha to reach this fort. You don’t have to pay any fee to enter this fort and admire its beauty. Just pay a visit between 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM, and you will be good to go.
A Cultural Village Awaits you at Katara
Want to experience the artistic and cultural interchanges to spread the message of hope and peace? Dive into the beauty of the cultural village of Katara. It is one of the places to visit in Qatar, where you can find a blend of Oriental and European architectural styles with Qatari. Valley of Cultures is another name famous for this village. It comes under Qatar tourist attractions and is regarded as a phenomenal place for all the thespians out there. Art and architecture enthusiasts love to come here.
Water fountain at Katara cultural village
You would be surprised to see an opera house, art galleries, amphitheater, and heritage centers here. The village celebrates not only the Qatari culture but also other civilizations and customs.
Enjoy the traditional Qatari architecture right here at village Katara in addition to other activities like concerts and exhibitions.
The Blend of Taste and Tradition
Souq Waqif
Next on the list of Qatar tourist places is Souq Waqif. The word “Souq Waqif” means standing market. Here you will get the perfect blend of taste, smell, and tradition. The stunning architecture and incredible perfumes will make you go gaga over this place.
Bring out your inner shopaholic with the plenty of shops here dealing with handicrafts, clothes, and souvenirs. Souq Waqif is an ideal mix of traditional and modern Qatar culture. You can dine at the best restaurants to relish the taste of dishes famous in Qatar. It's not just about the food. Explore the local art galleries to make your visit successful.
Let Pearl Qatar awe you
Manmade island depicting the epitome of luxury, Pearl Qatar is yet another best place to visit in Qatar. It is located north of West Bay. Interested in finding out how wealthy people live there? You must add Pearl Qatar to your list. Remarkable yachts, gorgeous villas, and outstanding stores give you an in-depth understanding of the life of upper-class people here.
Pearl Qatar
Famous Doha activities of Pearl Qatar include dining in the best restaurants and experiencing a cruise ride to Pearl island. Every year a large number of tourists come here to relish haute cuisine and witness the premium lifestyle and top-notch entertainment of Qatar.
The Doha Corniche with a Laid-Back Atmosphere
Wondering where to go in Qatar today? You don’t need to. Enjoy the beautiful sights of Doha Bay at Doha Corniche on the West Bay. Take a leisurely stroll along the promenade, and don’t forget to click your photograph there to keep it tucked under the memories. You can capture an amazing photo by standing close to the museum of Islamic art, which also gives you a panoramic view of the skyscrapers.
Are you a nature lover? If yes, the sunrise here is just splendid. And you definitely can’t miss out on that. Qatar National Theatre is just halfway down the promenade, where you can see plays and concerts. Large Al Bidda park gives you a chance to do bird watching and let your kids have fun.
Barzan Towers - Don't Miss It
Located just 20 km north of Doha, Barzan Towers were built in the late 1800s and renovated in 1910. The credit goes to Sheikh Mohammed bin Jassim Al Thani who built this tower with great zeal to show the history of this place. The towers are used for inspecting new month during the holy month of Ramadan. If you want to know the nitty-gritty of the life of pearl drivers and the military in the bygone years, you must visit Barzan Towers.
Sheikh Mohammed built the Western tower on the site between 1910 to 1916. The wall surrounds the village and gardens well. Furthermore, the eastern tower was built after 1958, having an equal height as that of the western tower, which is 14 meters.
East-West/West-East is Worth Admiring
Richard Serra created a new sculpture in the middle of the Qatari desert called “East-West/West-East Artwork.” It is the perfect example of showing the artistic side of Doha. The sculptures there are mesmerizing.
East-West West-East sculpture by artist "Richard Serra"
The four pillars change their colors from gray to orange to brown until they turn dark amber. Do you know that the hot temperature of the pillars goes to such an extent that you can cook scrambled eggs or even bake cookies? So, praise the beauty and artwork of East-West/West-East and let your Doha trip become fulfilling.
The Falcon Souq Teaches you About Falconry
An intriguing place located in the Souq Waqif, Falcon Souq is also one of the places to visit in Qatar that you will surely enjoy.
Fact check: Qatar is the richest country in the world per capita. And after visiting Falcon Souq, you will see innumerable expensive sports cars and world-class skyscrapers.
Having a Falcon is considered a status symbol in Qatar. You can find n number of shops here specializing in falcons. You can even see the monthly auction where people judge the physical abilities of the falcons. Isn’t that something unique? Obviously, it is.
Shoppers Will Enjoy the Villaggio Mall
Mark shopping in Villaggio Mall as the thing to do in Qatar this weekend. The creative ambiance here makes you feel like you are somewhere in the city of Venice. The mall ranges from normal retail shops to high-end luxury products.
Villaggio Shopping Mall
Located in the Aspire region, there are multiple options for clothing, jewelry, movies, and leisurely food. Thus, it is not wrong to say that it is a one-stop family destination.
Final Words
It's time to fall in love with Doha. Include the above-mentioned places in your itinerary of Doha and embark on a worthy journey of your life.
Read the full article
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The diggdogg bridge neighbours
Time for more looking at useless details! Come along to Diggdogg bridge!
Right after you steer onto the only road leading towards the desert and Gerudo town, before you step foot on the diggdogg bridge you'll likely see a cluster of five-ish burned down houses built around a big tree. There's usually a fire wizzrobe here, so that's the cause of the state of these houses and the tree isn't doing so well either. There are a few rusty weapons here. The most interesting part about this little village - if you can call it that - is the hidden path down to a little beach!
This lake doesn't seem to have a name but given the name of the bridge I'm sure we can call it diggdogg lake. There are two waterfalls here, one coming from the river of the dead up on the great Plateau and the other coming from the regencia river. There are fish and ducks here and it's quite beautiful! There's no sign of a boat or raft at this beach, however there is a raft by the shrine under the bridges, so that's something at least. The village doesn't have a well, so most likely they did get their water from down here at the beach. I'm going to assume they also fished and bathed here, and it just seems like a really nice place to live.
That's about it.. except there's another cluster of houses on the other side of the road, on top of the hill/mountain.
This "village" is also burnt down by a wizzrobe, and similarly to the other one it is built around a big tree! This village has a few more houses, and a well so they didn't need to go down to the river or the lake in order to get water. Opposite from the tree, there's a laid out path that leads down to two broken old carriages and a shelter, possibly where they kept their horses? If you follow this path you can find your way down the hill, but it's not as clearly laid out. From this hill you have a perfect view over the village down by the lake, but no immediete path to get there.
So what were these villages, and what relation did they have to eachother?
As one village is directly by a road, could it be that this was once a place where travellers could stop to stable their horses, visit a tavern or buy food? The village on top of the hill would be strangely hard to get to for a weary traveller, so what's up with that one? Could this hilltop village actually have been a settlement from where they could keep an eye on the road or the other village, in case there was trouble? Were they the same people, or neighbours? Or were these two villages rivals in some way?
I think a very important thing to note is that they are laid out exactly on opposite sides of the only road leading to gerudo desert. Could it be, that both or one of these villages were once gerudo built villages, made to protect the road, and also functioning as a rest stop for travellers? Or was it the opposite, made by hylians to protect from eventual trouble coming from the gerudo desert? None of the weapons found were of gerudo origin, but the houses were obviously made of wood and not stone like the usual hylian military facilities.
As there is a modern stable very close by, this seems to absolutely still be a well travelled area, and probably was before, but I can't really imagine that many hylians wanting to travel towards the gerudo desert specifically, and the placement of the villages as well as them both being made in a similar way around a tree, it just makes you wonder, who could've lived here and why.
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closed starter for @persephonyed
the desert had welcomed them in with humidity but yvonne didn’t mind. hell, it could have been pouring down rain and she would have made her way to the door of the house they were renting with a big, stupid smile on her face. coachella weekend one and her phone hadn’t stopped buzzing with notifications about it since the very beginning of the week. as she stepped through the unlocked door and dropped her bags, she called out as she wandered in. “helllloooooo? any bitches playing coachella around?” pausing as she caught sight of odessa when she turned the corner and entered the open plan living and dining area of the mid-century modern house they were all staying in. “shit, i didn’t actually think anyone was here yet.” she laughed, hand resting on the kitchen counter. “this place is kinda beautiful, jesus. you already steal the biggest room?”
#remember when i said i'd do this and then i didn't till now?#forgive me bestie#yvonne pinewood threads.#yvonne feat. odessa#persephonyed
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1, 7, 15 and 16 for the writer asks please?
1. give short descriptions of all your current WIPs.
Revelations (Hellsing) -- Christ it's impossible to summarize this epic well, so I'll just be glib: Alucard and Seras get their own happily ever afters, but they gotta earn that shit first. Leads in with a romance and bait-n-switches to epic fantasy. Lots of worldbuilding (mostly of the vampire world), reckoning with past trauma, and larger-than-life supernatural political strife. Remember, you can refuse The Call of Destiny, but The Call knows where you live!
Carolinas (Hellsing) -- After a spate murders, Seras goes to the South Carolina swamps to investigate and finds a vampire man living there. He's not the one killing everyone, but he knows who is. Romance ensues.
Nightcap (Hellsing) -- Short PWP one- to two-shot, Female Reader dares Alucard to come seek her out after he's all worked up from a successful mission, and finds out that a bloodlusting Alucard doesn't bluff.
Subtext of You (Stardew Valley) -- The angst of Revelations got to be too much so I made a sugar-sweet side project where Elliott and a shy Female Reader fall in love. There’s not really a plot here but I try to shoehorn one in.
Highway (Original Work) -- Narrator finds a gas station in the middle of the desert that appears to be open with people inside, but there are no cars anywhere in the lot. Squid Games/Lord of the Flies eldritch horror ensues.
7. what books have shaped the way you think about writing the most? why?
God, that’s a tough one. Overall I’m often inspired by the things I don’t see often in modern fantasy/sci-fi/horror, but there are certainly books I hold up as aspirational examples, such as the impressionist, avant-garde storytelling in Mark Z Danielewski’s House of Leaves and the simple but tense storytelling in tales such as Penpal by 1000Vultures. Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles was also a formative work for me, and I aspire to write simple but beautiful prose as well as he does. I’m probably a very long ways off but hey, it’s good to have goals, right?
I also have a number of really great writing references I own that have been invaluable.
15. what do drafting and revision look like for you?
Every story starts with an outline of the major plot points and maybe some scenes in between, if I have a really strong idea of what they look like. This part involves a lot of lengthy discussions with my beta to make sure everything makes sense.
Then on to the first draft. This part is the hardest for me. I basically try to shit out as many words as possible without stopping, starting with laying down the dialogue. Real utilitarian “just describe what’s happening” stuff, with no regard for the art of writing.
The magic is in the editing, of which there are many rounds. First round is go back and tweak physical action descriptions. Then another round to add narrative introspection. Then another round to add any narrative exposition, though I try to limit this. Then another round for setting description. Then another round to correct grammar, word choice, spelling. Then another round to correct for rhythm and flow (NaturalReader app is invaluable for this). Then I send it to my beta reader for corrections and suggestions, then incorporate those. Then a few more rounds because I’m paranoid. Then I get tired of fucking looking at it and kick it to publishing.
16. to what extent do you research for your writing?
Way too much. I’m one of those people who likes to try to put as much realism in my fantasy as I can, even for shit that probably no one will ever notice. Like really, just look at my recent posts. Calculated a whole ass lunisolar calendar for a fictional horoscope that may or may not be valid in-universe, because it’ll bother me if the timeline is off. My most recent Google search was how fast an elevator and a bullet train can travel, respectively, because I needed to calculate a realistic depth for the underground vampire city.
I can’t help it, though. It’s a labor of love.
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I have a Kirby Heardle Thread on Twitter so sometimes I go off about how much I love this series' music, here’s 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 so far (with a lot more added in lol):
I like how Faraway Halcandra doesn't sound anything like the other themes on the planet. It’s fun though, cause you can imagine this represents the quartet’s wonder at the majesty of being in an other dimension and seeing this legendary ancient planet, but then the actual surface is hell lol.
That’s something I probably didn't think about having played RTDL knowing all the lore beforehand, but when you see Magolor and the StarCutter's interior it really does build that Halcandra will be this magical cool place, only for it to look like THAT. Even within the levels there is another dichotomy between the dystopian remains of the planets once great industry with Egg Engines, and the hellish volcanic badlands of the planet in Dangerous Dinner - yet neither of them are that sparkly sleek greatness promised by the Lor.
The environmental storytelling of Halcandra has always captured me so much, it communicates so much about his ancient civilization and what it’s left behind in a way that makes it stand out from other “Great Ancient Civilizations” in fantasy I’ve consumed. A once thriving, futuristic, space-age civilization that made miracles of technology and magic like the Lor Starcutter... But now what’s left of them are people hobbled up in mechanical junkyards that house only dismantled and shabby remains of their creations, and beyond that is a nightmarish desert of lava and death. If Magolor really lived here, it’s no wonder he was obsessed with the Lor and Crown. You can really see and feel how incredible and majestic the Ancients must have been, and why whats left of their people would search high and low for anything that could give them that feeling of greatness again.
There’s also the very fun detail from later about how the ancients split apart leaving the science faction on the planet while the magic side was banished. Which would seem to imply that the people Magolor is descendant from had a history of power-reaching. There’s 10 million fun little details scattered across the modern games that paint such an interesting picture of what the ancients were like and I could gush about them forever!
Halcandra is super fun especially when compared to the Forgotten Land, both of them being such beautifully designed ruins. Halcandra far more with a feeling of destitution and loss of something great which likely comes from the inhabitants still living there in hellish, miserable conditions, and scrounging for scraps of past glory. But the Forgotten Land has been gladly abandoned and completely reclaimed by creatures who couldn't care less about the lost relics of the past. They only return to these ruins fully of starry-eyed curiosity, and the game wants you to see how beautiful that is. Like with a lot of things in Kirby lore there is a bit of an underlying theme of greed and pride that separates the two places and their inhabitants, and I want it to be explored M O R E !
I am still very very very curious to see how/if the line between the FL and Halcandra will be connected by canon. Kumazaki likes leaving things up to interpretation but I just feel like this thread is important enough and open enough that there are still more deets to come...
#kirby's return to dream land#kirby and the forgotten land#rtdl#katfl#kirby lore#shut the heck up#kirby lore rambles#heardle rants#mmmmm yummy i love themes about the corruptng power of obsessing over the past#and even yummier about the inherent innocent curiosity of life
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Ask and you shall receive! ❤️
Does your country have any interesting landmarks or tourist attractions?
me: begs you to send me asks
also me: doesn't reply until the next day
anyway, thank you, you absolute sweetheart ! our angel of asks, sprinkling joy by being generous with your time. i've been wanting to lightly borrow @bridgeportbritt's travel brouchure idea, but for now i'll just name a few. EDIT: i wrote a whole ass essay, and i am so sorry for everyone akddfsgds shoutout to that anon that asked me to tag long posts lmao
[slips into tour guide costume and voice]
uspana is an international travel destination. public policy has almost always been geared toward keeping it a beautiful, bountiful place that belongs to everyone. for uspanians themselves, obviously that has direct sustainability and spirituality implications. for foreigners, it means the kind of natural beauty that “development” and “modernization” tend to destroy or undermine in other places. uspana probably has the oldest trees in the world in which it exists, for example. its beaches are pristine. there’s a diversity of climates and biomes, from the tropical coast and jungles to the interior desert-y landscape to the forested provinces in the northwest. a significant portion of the land is managed locally and open to the public. it’s a pretty place with lots to do!
some things i’ve mentioned in posts:
nakawe, the capital city: in zurine’s intro episode, a group of students are visiting nakawe palace. nakawe has other palaces, including the actual king’s residence (where alf got bitch slapped by his mama), but nakawe palace is both the heart of the government and a historical site. so, people like to visit and see the throne room, the historical displays on various floors, the politicians and chambers in which they meet ... you might catch a glimpse of the royals themselves if you’re there at the right now. i think the palace has been there for much longer than nakawe has been the capital. you can also see parts of it in the wedding reception posts and in this dumb boys outtake, among others. the royal mausoleum is in nakawe, along with others belonging to clans with history in the area. the public can visit the royal one when it’s not in use by a family member. alfonso and rowena’s wedding took place at the royal sacrarium, which was built like seven centuries ago to hold the ancestral bones brought from yaas. (later, family members were buried in the mausoleum, and the bones are moved to the sacrarium when the mausoleum runs out of space.) it’s sort of their equivalent of a church, i guess, although there aren’t really “services” there.
canaris is the big beach destination, although zoning codes keep it from being particularly urban. it’s where alfonso and rowena lived for the first few years of their marriage, and it used to be the capital of uspana. when rowena visits him there in this episode, it’s essentially a montage of some sites. they ride horses on the beach, go to the old square that’s the main shopping center, and visit one of the national museums focused on the area’s history. the museum also hosted the mother’s day exhibit decades later. alfonso takes rowena on a tour of the old palace ruins in this episode; i think it’s seasonally open to the public for private tours, since it can be a bit treacherous to walk around. the 1980s babies turn canaris into a party town in the 2000s, for better and for worse skdflkdsg
alam palace is in yaas, and it’s the ancestral seat of the house of tecuani. i think they do tours when the family isn’t in town, but it’s attached to a village of sorts that people can visit and tour year-round. there’s lots of cool stuff to see in yaas because it’s the first site of uspana’s national origin story. the palace itself is several centuries old, although the space where it sits has been a home basically since time immemorial. creator’s mount is also in yaas; it’s a sacred site, where alfonso and rowena were married and a place that beatriz liked to visit with him. relatedly, the penalties for taking things from this province are particularly steep, like stones from ruins or ceramics or so forth.
this hasn’t come up in part iii, but beatriz establishes another family holiday location in intizara as an adult. it’s mainly because she doesn’t like going to alam palace after alfonso dies, or really yaas in general. this place doesn’t have much connection to the reyes family; it’s an ancestral home of her husband’s family, i think. it becomes more of a tourist destination during her lifetime, although i imagine it was always a quieter and more temperate alternative to the coast around canaris. the royal house is not open to the public, but you can drive by on a nearby hill and see the front yard pretty well. bea cultivated olive trees on the property because of a special reason i shall not divulge, and my new headcanon is that she gives reyes brand olive oil to both random commoners she encounters and foreign royals who visit uspana.
thank you for indulging me !!!!!!!
#if there are typos no there ain't#;long post#ugh i loved this so much#how many times can i say thank you without exhausting us both ajkdjaf#reyes.worldbuilding#reyes.hc#ch.beatriz
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"Sweet Lilith - زهرة ضوء القمر الخاصة بي (My moonlight flower Arabic/Egyptian translated),- allow this morning sun to brighten your nights and days as well as your heart..."
Khepri Nubia - Onofria
Age :??? (Looks to be in her 20's)
Ethnics: Ancient Egyptian/Al Simhara
Pronouns: She/They/Them
Sexual Orientation : Allosexual
Traits: Hot Headed. Family Oriented, High Maintence
Khepri has lived a long life til she was chosen as heir and then sacrificed for being accused of a crime she did not commit by her father the Pharaoh and was taken to be a sacrificial lamb of sorts to gods they adored hoping to appeal with Khepri's pure soul as well as her unique beauty.
Something interstingly enough happened as her hearts were weighted as the gods were unsure of what to do with her til Apep/Apophis, Isis and Ra soon decided that they would send her back to earth but as a reborn goddess among mortals as her penance was for eternity as an appropriate consequence. She also became the very first vampric occult who could stand the morning sun.
When she came back her people obviously knowing and seeing her new status obeyed her whim and such, her parents certainly were indeed shocked days after they had put their daughter to rest in the Valley of The Dead. She did not slain them, her fiancé' who was a Egyptian man from a neighboring city was overjoyed but also cautious of her and the ones who accused her of crimes who were infact the guilty ones were indeed livid as their plans were now thorted to take over the city and combine their own with the stolen one. (Not the fiancé's family obviously)
Decades later as her family,lover and enemies are now nothing but dust, she has decided to emerge from one of her many salvation spots to look for love once more, though she has heard of a mysterious other occult that lives in a place called Forgotton Hallows. Quiet as history flew by ,- she was hiding in her many safe haven nooks though still managed to learn out the world and its glorious moderns treasures and languages that are now spoken.
Travelling the world as each year to decade always finding new things to learn whether by book or street smarts etc a skill that she was good with her hands and logic as well as socially. Despite all these new amazing things, she's always wished to be loved as she was before and as she is now. There were times with her various other ex lovers but sadly never many lasted for too long due to her eternal yet cursed youth. She has had many children during this time of course but the last of her line now extinguished 30 years ago has deemed it safe to return back to her home.
Though her home was modern and newish though their were indeed still great glimpses of an ancient world if you squinted hard enough especially the ruins of the once great temples of many kings, and she kept it rented out privately eventually adding renovations to fit the time ages e.g candlelight to solar electricity and water.
It was only 2 years that had passed when Khepri during a very unusual desert heatwave that plagued the city for the past week continuously decided to stay indoors for the sake of it deeming proper and also she didn't want to push her sun limits and burst into flames *sniggers* and thus lazed about with her pet dog Anubi and cat Basket short for Basketcase and watched tv waiting for her usual soap opera show when their was Lilith's bachelorette advertisement playing.
Tilting her head she blinked curious whether or not it was worth it to travel all the way to this Forgotten Hallows place and though she was extremely wealthy (possibly in the AUD/US billions of simoleons) she didn't want to upset her familial pets with the traveling and its consequences that it may traumatize them unless she really had too. So she made arrangements for a house sitter as well as a kind animal kennel that would hold them until she returned and signed her name up to the producer, keeping of course her vampire/goddess immortal ways a secret. and once more thankful though she could drink both blood and eat mortal food for sustenance.
Your welcome to edit her with your own game as l know not everyone uses the same eye presets etc but please make sure her eyes are the same if possible in the defaults you use. Also if you have any Egyptian cc whether it be maxis or alpha your free to add it to her outfits
Other then that l hope Lilith and yourself enjoy having her in your game @hauntedplasma
*Files*
Also please liking and reblogging is fine but please to others that isn't myself or hauntedplasma please ask permission if you want my sim in your game.
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